Penelope Quest - The Basics of Reiki: A Step-by-Step Guide to Healing with Reiki

THE BASICS OF

REIKI

JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa), Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North 2193, South Africa Penguin China, B7 Jiaming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100020, China

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Piatkus Books Ltd

Copyright 2007 by Penelope Quest

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-101-60381-9

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Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. The ideas, procedures, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting with your physician. All matters regarding your health require medical supervision. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any rsponsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

This book is dedicated to Mikao Usui, and to his
students, without whom the world would not have
received the wonderful gift of Reiki.

Disclaimer

This book gives nonspecific, general advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for proper medical consultation. Reiki does not replace normal allopathic medical treatment. Reiki helps to enhance the process of harmony of the mind, body, emotions and spirit, and is a means of supporting and complementing medical treatment. If you have any acute or chronic disease, you should consult a qualified medical practitioner.

While all suggested treatments are offered in good faith, the author and publisher accept no liability for damage of any nature resulting directly or indirectly from the application or use of information in this book, or from the failure to seek medical advice from a doctor.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the many people who have helped, directly or indirectly, with this book, especially to my Reiki teachers, Kristin Bonney, William Lee Rand, Andy Bowling, Richard Rivard and Robert Jefford, and to my many Reiki students, for the love and learning they have brought me. I would also like to thank the many Reiki friends I have made all over the world for their ideas and inspiration, and in particular the members of the UK Reiki Federation (UKRF) and the Reiki Regulation Working Group (RRWG). Many thanks also to the Piatkus editing and production staff, especially Gill, Helen, Allie, Krystyna and Briony, and to Rodney for his excellent illustrations.

Nowadays it is not unusual to see articles about Reiki in newspapers and magazines, or to hear about it on the radio or in TV programs, but back in 1990, when I first encountered it, it was pretty remarkable. I have always been interested in esoteric and alternative subjects, and began my search for personal and spiritual development in the mid-1970s, studying anything and everything from astrology, cartomancy and graphology to numerology, palmistry and even social psychology. One evening in 1990 I attended a talk on personal growth techniques, and I was really impressed by the speaker, Kristin Bonney, mainly because she seemed so calm and tranquiland tranquility was completely absent from my own life at the time. I was then living a ridiculously frenetic lifestyle as a single parent, working long hours as a college lecturer, and studying in what I laughingly called my spare time for an Open University degree.

While chatting with someone during the coffee break I was told that Kristin practiced and taught a hands-on healing technique called Reiki, which I had never heard of, so a few months later I went along to one of her introductory talks on the subject, and I found it fascinating. I had my first experience of Reiki flowing through me as I sat on the floor in front of a Reiki practitioner, and while Kristin talked the practitioner simply placed his hands on my shoulders. Almost immediately I could feel this wonderful, flowing softness, gentleness, warmth and tingling flooding through my body. I could feel emotions welling up inside me, even though I felt quite relaxed and peaceful, and I could sense a soothing progress down my body, into my legs, and right into my feet and toes. It was the most astonishing sensation, and after only fifteen minutes I felt fantastic. I decided right there and then that Reiki was something I really wanted in my life.

It took a while for me to find some free time, but in 1991 I attended a weekend Reiki First Degree course, and I will admit I went along in some trepidation, not sure what to expect. I had always assumed that healers were special people, born with unique gifts, so surely an ordinary person like myself couldnt become a healer, and certainly not in just a couple of days? I also thought that even if it could work for some of the students attending that course, it probably wouldnt work for me. Of course, on both counts I was proved wrongand now, having taught Reiki myself for many years, I realize that most students feel like that when they come along to their first Reiki course.

Kristin reassured me that we all have the potential to be healers, and even by the end of the first day I could feel a lovely warm energy flowing from my hands when I tried to use Reiki on myself. By the end of the second day I had received my first Reiki treatment, and had successfully carried out one on another student. I went out of that class a Reiki evangelist! I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world, and couldnt wait to try it out on my family, friends, catsand anything or anyone else that would stand still long enough!

Soon I started a part-time Reiki practice, fitting it into my busy life with surprising ease, and a year later I felt it was time to take the Reiki Second Degree course, which was even more amazing. It was as though the whole world around me had changedcolors were brighter, sounds were sharper, smells and tastes were more intenseas if a veil had been lifted and I was seeing the world for the first time. My awareness was incredibly enhanced, and I felt a tremendous connection to everything around me, from people, animals and plants, to rocks and water. It felt truly magical, and for me it seemed as though I had taken an enormous leap forward spiritually. Over the weeks and months that followed, as I practiced the new skills I had been taught, I discovered that my intuition and psychic abilities were growing rapidly, so that I became fully clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient. I even began to see inside my clients bodies, so that I could tell what was wrong with themalthough, as you can imagine, the first few times that happened was a shock, and a bit frightening. Id thought X-ray vision was an invention of comic-book heroes like Superman! However, if you find that prospect a bit alarming, I can say that this doesnt happen to everyone who does Reiki; I think Reiki just boosts your potential in whatever gifts are inherent within you.